Bands that sound the same...

I've been away from here for a while (posted to Germany, spent 3 months in desert etc) but it's good to be back.

I got back to sunny UK on Xmas holidays last Saturday just in time for my Birthday. Met up with old band-mates and headed into town where I was promised 3 cool bands were going to be playing.

But...they were all deftones soundalikes, i.e. mid-tempo heavy riffs with shout/rap/grunt/screaming lyrics over the top. The only difference between them was that the headliners from Oxford were far more competent musically (including bass player who could slap at 1000bpm - I'll be even more impressed when he can do it in time) than the supporting bands.

I know that a) I should get out more and b) this maybe isn't a true representation of the current 'scene' but I was truly horrified that if new rock bands nowadays think that this is the way ahead, then manufactured pop and the shrink-wrapped pop idol recording industry has nothing to fear...

this always happens- you'll always find that 99% of unsigned bands in the UK are clones of whatever's currently big- usually trends coming from the US- hence loads of Korn clone bands, and loads of Lost Prophets and Hundred reasons clone bands- usually without any hooks to their songs though.

and loads of Coldplay/Travis/Elbow etc. clone bands in the indie scene.

Thankfully, the Korn clones haven't made it this far north - mostly, you get an awful lot of sub-Oasis bands with about four guitarists banging out the same power chords. Unfortunately, most of them also seem to copy the Gallagher brothers' egos as well.

pop-punk is making it big here in london too, im in a successful pop-punk outfit right now...(shameless plugging!) and im getting fed up....the guitarist has decided that everything we do has to be exactly the same as these newfoundglory/sum41 bands....it is rally beginning to piss me off!...ill put a change to that tho add some funk to this tang!

Cheers guys... it seems my worries are well founded. Mock, thanks for the welcome, I suppose the bands I saw that night could be considered Kornalikes as well. Shame...

Yawnsie you are lucky, but not that lucky.... oasis soundalikes? how LAZY is that?

PFfreak YOU can make a difference!! Assert yourself now! Another Green Day/Blink 182/Sum 41 WILL NOT get you a deal!! (I reckon anyway) Only by getting subversive with those basslines (and even better with the help of the drummer too) will you stand any chance of standing out... (oh yes I forgot the 'image' criteria in the exec's checksheets...)

As for the rest of you in the UK, PLEASE make a difference and BE ORIGINAL (not a problem in Bruce Lindfield's case). I speak from the perspective of concerned listener as well as appalled bassist. Merry Xmas to you all,

The funny thing is my band used to be dismissed as an Oasis clone, when we had two guitarists. We've since binned the rhythm guitarist, and now people are likening us to Led Zeppelin and, for some reason I can't work out, the Sex Pistols. Funny how changing something like that can completely change the way your music is perceived.

Originally posted by smoothergroover Assert yourself now! Another Green Day/Blink 182/Sum 41 WILL NOT get you a deal!! (I reckon anyway) Only by getting subversive with those basslines (and even better with the help of the drummer too) will you stand any chance of standing out... (oh yes I forgot the 'image' criteria in the exec's checksheets...)

Click to expand...

IMHO you can build up a following more easily by being a clone band and following trends, and can get you signed to a small label, simply by having a following, BUT you're very likely to get dropped after one album, once the trends have moved on, and Blink182/Sum41/Limp Bizkit/Korn or Coldplay/Starsailor/Turin brakes 's success has faded.

my band, The Now, don't fit with any of that- the last review we got in the Organ fanzine likened us to everything from Soundgarden to The Beatles http://www.organart.demon.co.uk/oathenow.html
(can't understand that ELO reference in that review though..... )